The Royal Wedding!

The Queen and Prince Phillip!

I just got back to my room after spending 27 hours at the Mall for the Royal Wedding!  It was absolutely amazing!  We got to the Mall at 11 on Thursday morning and it was already crazy!  We stood and watched the Today Show for a while before getting our camping area.  We were able to camp right outside of the Clarence House, which is where William and Harry spent the last night.  People were coming in and out all night.  At one point, we were sitting at our camp site when someone told us that David Cameron, the Prime Minister was walking around.  I ended up getting to shake his hand which was pretty cool.

David Cameron

Meeting Prince William!

Then, I had one if the highlights of my life!  Renae and I were walking around because it looked like someone famous was getting ready to leave Clarence House.  A police officer told us that we should stay where we were and not attract anymore attention to ourselves and not encourage people to come stand by us.  We tried asking him why but he only said that if we did that, we would be very happy.  So, we're standing there when all of the sudden, William and Harry walk out of the house and start shaking hands with the people outside.  I GOT TO MEET PRINCE WILLIAM!  It was awesome!  I got to see Harry, but didn't actually get to meet him.

We all slept on some blankets last night at our camp out.  It got a little cold, but our seats were totally worth it.  We got to see William and Harry leave, Charles and Camilla, the rest of the Queen's children, the Queen and Prince Phillip and then Kate and her dad leave for Westminster Abbey.  The service was broadcasts over load speakers everywhere so we could hear all of it and cheer when they said their vows!  Then, I got to see William and Kate in the carriage and then the Queen!  It was awesome!  What a perfect way to start winding down my time in London!

William and Kate!

Winding down

I had such a great week with mom and Karen here.  It went so fast though.  We hit pretty much all of the tourist hot spots.  We rode the red buses, the eye, Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral and tons of other stuff.  We also made it to Paris for a day.  We lucked out and had beautiful weather for our trip to France.  We took the eurostar which was amazing.  It took us a little over 2 hours to get to a different country which is crazy! We took a riverboat cruise around Paris, had lunch on the Eiffel Tower and then wandered around for a while.

It's hard to believe that I have less then a month here.  I was at my internship today and realized that I only have 2 more days left.  It's really bitter sweet.  The people I work with are so awesome and I'm a little bummed to have to try and a job in the U.S. because I'm worried that nothing will compare to my internship.  Oh well.

It's off to Italy for spring break this week.

Family!

Hello everyone!  This past week has been so jam packed but so awesome!  I celebrated my 21st birthday last week and what better place to celebrate then London?  It was a gorgeous day outside, lots of sunshine and I didn't have a single thing to do all day!  It was perfect!  I also hit up the Imperial War Museum this past week.  I didn't think I would be a huge fan of it, but the exhibits were amazing.  There was a replica of a trench, that looked, smelled and sounded like a trench from WWI and then a 'Blitz Experience.'  It was interesting to see the World Wars from a different perspective.  I'm so used to seeing them from the American point of view, and I've never even realized how lucky we are to have not had to fight on our own land.  There was also a Holocaust portion of the museum.  It was a little hard to get through, and I still can't really wrap my head around the reasons for it.

I went to Spring Convention this past weekend for my internship and I was able to see all of the little things that I have been working on at the office pay off.  I got to meet the presenters that I had been reading about and I even did a few of the sessions.  I did a ViPR circuit and it was the hardest workout I have ever done in my life!  I couldn't walk without pain for the rest of the weekend.  I also listened to Mark Foster, who is an Olympic swimmer and then I did a Zumba class on Sunday.  It was an exhausting weekend but a ton of fun too.  I felt like I was really submerged in the British culture.  I ate a roast dinner, watched a college rugby game and even watched the Grand National horse race (which was really depressing).  It was the first time language has really been an issue for me though, because I'm used to being around a lot of other Americans, but this weekend, I was one of the lone Americans, it was still a blast though!

On Monday morning, I headed off to Heathrow to pick up Mom and Karen!  It was so nice to see a couple of familiar faces after being away from home for so long.  On Monday, we did a big red bus tour, which I had been waiting to do for so long!  Tuesday, we really did London.  We started our day at Westminster Abbey.  The building is absolutely stunning, both inside and out.  It was a little depressing though because I had no idea how many people are buried in the building.  Poet's corner was another one of my favorites part of the Abbey along with the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior.  After Westminster Abbey, we took a cab (my first one since being in London) over to the Tower of London.  We waited to get a tour with a Beefeater, and it was so worth it.  He was a riot!  I felt like a really learned a lot though, which is always a plus.  I think Mom and Karen had a great time there too.  We got the chance to check out the crown jewels, and boy are they impressive.  I think the 535 karat diamond was my favorite...its almost unfair that the Queen actually gets to wear all that stuff!  That night, I went on the London Eye for the first time with the rest of our tour group.  I can't believe I had waited so long to do it, because it was awesome.  We lucked out and had a really nice night, so it looked like London just went on and on.

Tomorrow, it's off to Brighton to spend a day at the beach...I cannot wait!  

Ireland!

I said that Barcelona was my favorite place, but it has been taken over by IRELAND!  I never wanted to leave.  It was such a beautiful place, and everyone was so friendly.  You never even had to directions, if you looked lost, some nice Irish person would come over to help.  We started our trip pretty early (4am) but ended up getting into Dublin by around 9.  We weren't exactly sure what to do so we went to the Jameson Whiskey Distillery.  We got to take a guided tour around the old distillery that has been transformed into a museum type area resembling the original building.  At the beginning of the tour, I had volunteered for a surprise at the end because our tour guide said it involved us getting free stuff.  I couldn't resist!  After learning how to make whiskey, us 8 volunteers had to go sit in front of the rest of the group and compare 3 different kinds of whiskey, the leading Scottish whiskey, Jameson and the leading American whiskey, Jack Daniels.  Americans really need to take a hint from the Irish because they sure do know how to do it!

Jameson Whiskey Distillery

After Jameson, we went to the next logical place...the Guinness Storehouse!  The place was absolutely massive.  When you first walk in, you're standing in a giant pint glass.  The women who gave us a quick introduction said that you could fit over 7 million pints of Guinness in this one glass.  Here, we learned what ingredients go into the Guinness and how it is actually made.  The rest of the storehouse is used as a museum type place where you can see previous advertisements and how the Guinness gets from the Storehouse in Dublin to the rest of the world.  It was pretty cool stuff.  After that, I learned how to pour the perfect pint of Guinness.  These people have it down to a science!  First off, you have to start with the logo facing you and the pint glass tipped to 45 degrees and touching the tap.  Then you pull the tap forward and fill it until it touches the bottom of the word Guinness on the glass.  Then you hold the glass straight up and down until the Guinness reaches the middle of the harp.  You have to let it sit for 119 seconds and then you hold it straight up and down again while pushing the tap backwards and filling it to the top.  When you push the tap backwards, no gases come out with the beer so you can fill it over the top without it spilling over...who knew?

My perfect pint of Guinness!

On Saturday, we decided to take a tour of the Wicklow area.  It was seriously the most gorgeous thing I have ever seen in my life!  The sun was shining, the sky was blue, the grass was green...it was perfection.  I saw the Irish sea, and it was clear enough that I could even see over to Wales.  The first stop on our tour (the tea break) was in a small area called Glencree.  The British built barracks there during one of the wars, and today the barracks is still standing, but there are really pretty lavender flowers growing on the stone.  I saw my fist bog on this trip too.  I never knew much about them, but our tour guide, Joe (the most adorable and friendly Irishmen you will ever meet), told us how dangerous they are.  After hearing that I think I'll be staying away from them.  Our next stop of the day was definitely my favorite.  For those of you who have seen P.S. I Love You, we stopped at the bridge where Gerry and Holly meet for the first time.  After being there I can totally see why the producers chose that spot to film at.  It was gorgeous!  The stone bridge was sitting just over a small creek with little waterfalls.  It was so peaceful and pretty, I can't really even describe it in words, so here is a picture!

The bridge from P.S. I Love You!

The next stop was at a lake that looked like a pint of Guinness.  The Guinness corporation must have figured this out because they had a ton of beach sand brought in and put at the one end of the lake to look like the foam of the beer and then used it in an actual advertisement.  At first I didn't see it, but after Joe explained it to me, it suddenly appeared to me.  The house in the bottom right corner is where the Beatles stayed when they were in Ireland.  Joe told us that Paul McCartney was wandering around the lake one day when the song "Yesterday" came into his head.  Pretty cool stuff. 

"Pint of Guinness" if the picture was a little wider, the house the Beatles stayed in would be on the bottom right.

Next on our drive around the Irish country side was a little place called Glendalough.  It is a town where there used to be a monostary.  It was almost creepy because there was a huge cemetery and then the remnants of an old church.  Only the walls were left standing, but I'm sure it was a beautiful church in its day.  There were 2 lakes around Glendalough and our group walked to the first of the lakes.  The lake was very pretty and peaceful and there were some pretty adorable sheep running around.

Remains of the church

The last stop on our day trip was at a restaurant for lunch and a wool mill in Avoca.  The restaurant was used to film the show Bally Kiss Angel.  I had never heard of it, but I guess it was a really popular show.  The food was really good.  The wool mill was awesome.  There were so many different colors of yarn and the scarves and other things that they were making were so pretty.  I would have been dangerous if I would have taken my credit card in with me.  

That night, we decided to go to the Arlington in Dublin for some live music.  We went a listened to a cover type band, and they were pretty awesome.  We also met some super nice people.  Everyone there was just dancing around and having a great time.  After the Arlington, a few of us decided to go to Temple Bar.  This area is really famous but I'm not exactly sure what for besides having a lot of bars.  We went to the actual Temple Bar in the Temple Bar area, and it was huge.  It was covered in twinkle lights and there were places to stand outside with heat lamps so you didn't have to worry about getting cold.  We were sitting there talking when we met this guy from North Dakota...small world!

The Temple Bar

On Sunday, we decided to head to the National Leprechaun Museum.  We learned all about the different myths and such that led to leprechauns.  We walked through a magic tunnel where we 'shrunk' and then into a room where all of the furniture was giant so we felt like leprechauns.  Then we found a rainbow and even the pot of gold.  At the end, we got to color our own pictures and then hang them up in the museum.  

On some 'giant' furniture

The last part of the day was spent at St. Patrick's cathedral.  I was a little bummed that I didn't have time to get inside, but we had a plane to get to.  The cathedral was so beautiful though.  It was huge and there was a really pretty park next to it that had tulips blooming everywhere.  Who said that leaving Pella for a semester had to mean going without tulips.  Overall, Ireland was amazing!  Someday, when I'm rich, I'll have to go back for a few weeks so I can make it to all of the places that I missed during this trip!

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Barcelona!!

Barcelona is officially my favorite new place!  I had heard that it was beautiful but I had no idea just how amazing it would actually be.  I met my good friend Nikki and a couple of her friends who are also studying in Spain there.  We got there late on a Thursday night so we didn't really see much of the city until the next morning.  The first place we went was the Segrada Familia.  Gaudi orginially built this huge church but he was killed before it was finished.  The church is still not finished yet, but it is stunning!  They told us that it would be at least 25 years before it was completed.  After the church we hopped on a sightseeing bus to tour the city.  We had such beautiful weather for the whole trip so we were able to sit on the open deck on the bus.  We saw Las Ramblas, Park Guell, which was also created by Gaudi and everything else that Barcelona had to offer.  That night, we found the 1992 Barcelona Olympic site.  It was the first time that I had ever looked into an Olympic stadium and it rocked!  After the Olympics we went to the Magic Fountains.  They are a series of fountains and waterfalls that all go to a huge fountain that 'performs' each night.  There are lights and music and it's such a cool experience.
The next day, we went to Camp Nou, which is Football Club Barcelona's stadium.  The stadium was huge!  We saw the field, press box, visiting locker rooms, and all sorts of other stuff.  I had never been on a stadium tour before, but it was totally worth seeing.  After Camp Nou, we went to Las Ramblas, which is an area where you can eat, shop and just look around.  I had paella for lunch which was delicious and after doing some shopping around, we ended up at the Mediterranean Sea.  The water was such a pretty color so we sat and relaxed for a few minutes.  Then it was time for churros and sangria.  Me encanta Barcelona!

A weekend in Bath

I just got back from a weekend out of London.  Our class went to Dyrham Park, Bath and Lacock.  It was nice to get out of the hussle and bussle of the big city for a few days.  The first place we stopped was Dyrham Park.  It is an old estate and the house is absolutely massive.  There is also a church on the grounds and a beautiful garden with ponds and everything else.  After Dyrham Park we drove to Bath.  It is such a gorgeous city.  I saw Pulteney Bridge, which is one of 3 bridges that are actually inhabited, the Bath Abbey, the Roman Baths, and so much more.  Bath is surrounded by huge hills that houses are built up on.  The first night in Bath we visited the Roman Baths.  It is so amazing that the water is still coming from under the Earth's surface and is still just as warm as it would have been when the Romans were using them.
The next day, a few of us decided to take an impromptu trip up to Stonehenge.  It was only about an hour away from Bath and it was quite a sight.  It's not somewhere to spend a whole day, but it is definitely something that you have to see.  It is mind blowing how people would have moved these giant rocks back when there was no machinery or other things.  That afternoon I took my first double decked bus tour around Bath and learned all about the city.  There is so much history in the city and it was a beautiful day to be riding around on an open top bus.
On Sunday, the group went to Lacock.  It is an old English village and all the buildings are left alone so it looks like it may have looked a hundred years ago.  We went to the Lacock Abbey, which is where many of the scenes from the first 2 Harry Potter movies were filmed.  We also saw where the first photograph was taken and got to play dress up in old clothes.  Then I had cream tea, which is just English tea served with a scone and clotted cream, our a mix of butter and whipped cream.  Yum!
The weeks are starting to fly by here and it is hard to believe that this was the halfway point of my trip.  The rest of the weekends are already filled up with trips so I'm sure that the second half of the semester is going to go even faster then the first!

Dyrham Park

Bath Abbey

Roman Baths

Royal Crescent in Bath

Stonehenge

Lacock Abbey

Corridors from Harry Potter in the abbey

Village of Lacock

Another Fun Week!

Hi everyone!  It has been another crazy and fun week in London.  For my theatre class, I got to go see "As You Like It" at the Rose Theatre.  It was a pretty awesome place to watch Shakespeare from.  I made it through another week of my internship and then it was back to the weekend!  I went to the London Aquarium.  It was so fun.  They had sharks, sea turtles, nemo fish, dory fish, crocodiles and a ton more.  I also got the chance to go to Windsor Castle this weekend.  It was a quick bus trip up to Windsor and the castle was amazing!  We got to go inside on a tour, even though we looked like total tourists with our audio guides and headphones.  The State apartments were so beautiful.  We got to see the giant dining room where the Queen still hosts state dinners and such and some of the more private dining rooms.  We got to see some great artwork too.  The Queen was even home while we were on our tour, but we didn't get to see her.  After our tour we walked around Windsor for a while, and it is such a cute town.  We found a cupcake shop and I had a delicious red velvet cupcake!  Yum!